A Lean Leaders Big “AHA” Moment

By Al Norval

Many of you will recognize the name John Toussaint, MD. John is the CEO of the Thedacare Center for Healthcare Value and a former CEO of Thedacare. During his time at Thedacare, he introduced the Thedacare Improvement System which was based on the Toyota Production System. John co-authored the best-selling and Shingo Prize winning book “On the Mend” which documents his experience from implementing Lean into a healthcare system.

John has had time to reflect on his journey of leading a lean implementation and has many great insights. On speaking with John, he had a wonderful quote which I’d like to share with you.

“I spent so much time putting out fires until I realized I was the oxygen” John Toussaint, MD

As a leader what you do is what you get. If you spend your time putting out fires, people will bring you more fires to put out. Better to spend your time teaching others and building the capability of the organization. Not to have them learn to put out fires but to have them learn how to solve problems to root cause so the fires don’t come back.

Once people learn how to solve problems using the scientific method, leaders need to reinforce that new behavior and be careful to not reinforce firefighting.

In John’s words – put the oxygen into problem solving so we can extinguish firefighting.

Cheers

Why Are Learning Organizations So Scarce?

By Pascal Dennis

A billion dollar question...

There are many root causes, which our blog explores at length.

Here's one of the most important:

Our business & professional schools teach us to think in a way inimical to learning.

Here are some of the mental models I picked up at engineering and business schools:

1. We are very smart and successful
   


2. We can manage from a distance, by the numbers
   

Corollary: What can front line people possibly teach us?


3. Everything wraps up nicely - just like an MBA case study
   


4. Problems are bad things - smart, successful managers like us shouldn't have problems!
   


5. If there is a problem, we need to launch an INITIATIVE - the more complex the better
   

Sadly, the present "splitting" we're seeing in society can reinforce such thinking.

"I am very smart and successful - and I just received a massive bonus to prove it!"

Effect?

Hubris, disconnection from the front line (where most value is created), apathy & cynicism in the organization.

In other words, an environment that precludes learning.

Don't want to be misunderstood.

People go to professional and business schools with the best of intentions.

To develop their skills, advance their careers and so on.

But we often get more than we bargained for.

The interesting thing is that these mental models are never articulated.

They are in the atmosphere, invisible, accepted and unquestioned.

The great Henry Mintzberg has said that MBA graduates should have a skull & crossbones tattooed to their foreheads.

I've been trying to remove mine for a couple of decades now...

Best,

Pascal

Jidoka – What does Line Stop really mean?

By Al Norval

As we look at the House of Lean, we see the roof held up by two pillars – JIT & Jidoka. I’ve written before about Jidoka being the forgotten pillar since most of the buzz is around the other pillar of JIT. Jidoka or autonomation as it is often translated to, really refers to “Built in Quality at the Source” or even more simply – Don’t pass defects on. Many people forget that high quality and Just In Time go hand in hand. There’s no sense reducing lead times just to move defects faster through the value stream.

I like to think of Jidoka as three things:

1. Don’t accept defects
   


2. Don’t make defects
   


3. Don’t pass defects on
   

Today, this post deals with the second bullet - Don’t make Defects. This can be broken down into a process which has four main parts to it:

1. Detect Defects
   


2. Stop
   


3. Call for help
   


4. Problem Solve
   

I see many people jumping on the bandwagon when they hear this but they tend to confuse the Stop step. While Stop accomplishes the goal of not passing defects on to the next operation, the parts of the process must work together. None of the steps works in isolation. I see many operations that wouldn’t run for very long if we kept stopping them every time the line produced a defect.

Machines are better than humans at detecting defects and stopping the line. Humans are better than machines at calling for help and problem solving. For Jidoka to work properly we must have both the machine and human parts of the system working well together. That means we must have a human response system that can respond to defects quickly, problem solve and rapidly get the line back up and running again.

The image I like to use in that when problems occur, the team swarms all over them so the operation can get back up and running again without making defects. Not only do they get the operation back up and running again but they problem solve to root cause so the problem doesn’t occur again.

Too often I see organizations put in the machine system where defects are detected and the operation is stopped but they have a weak human response system which leads to much downtime, delay and frustration on the part of Team Members. Problems aren’t solved to root cause which means they occur again and again.

The key lesson is:

Ensure a rapid human response system is in place and functioning well before line stop is attempted.

If not, it’s an easy way to just trade one type of waste for another.

Cheers